Wrath of Team 7
by Immortal Sailor Cosmos
Summary: In a last ditch effort to defeat the Joint Shinobi Army Akatsuki attempts to use their Juubi weapon without the Kyuubi, but the weapon backfires unleashing a torrent of destruction on the world. Naruto was able to protect Sasuke, Sakura and Sai but everything is destroyed and as far as they can tell they are the only ones left, leaving them to return to the past to save the world.
1. Chapter 1: Sasuke and Naruto

PLEASE VISIT MY PROFILE AND VOTE IN THE POLL FOR THE STORIES YOU WANT TO READ HERE (everything will eventually be on AO3)

AN-Total Story: Jiraiya taught Naruto about seals, and Naruto can make a Rasenshuriken in both hands. I will often use Japanese terms or grammar wherever I can, if I think it is too complicated for my readers to remember or want to bother with, I won't, like not always using "Kooho" instead of "Candidate" when regarding Danzo and Kakashi as temporary Kages.

This story starts at the beginning of Page 12, chapter 485: So close and yet so far

Disclaimer: This is FANfiction, which is written by FANs for FANs and is totally free of cost. Naruto belongs to a Japanese Mangaka, of which I am neither.

AN- Chapter 1: There are two more clones then in the cannon Manga, so about 5 clones. Sakura's kunai was **NOT** poisoned.

(The conversation here is from page 13, 14 and 15 of Chapter 485 of the Copyrighted Naruto material, I'm just re-writing it with written description so that no one is confused how this story starts)

* * *

Sasuke and Naruto stood facing each other just out of reach as the power in the air faded.

Naruto looked down and put his hand on his stomach, "You know why everyone hated me when I was a kid…Because I have the Nine-Tails inside me." He looked up at Sasuke then, "I hated all of them, too. I wanted to get revenge on them. One misstep and I might've been thinking the same horrible things as you." Now Naruto had a sad smile on his face, "I thought I'd never have a real bond with anyone, not until I met people like you and Iruka-sensei." Naruto scratched the back of his neck before continuing, "I knew you were always alone. I felt happy knowing there was someone like me…I wanted to hang out with you. It just made me happy! But I couldn't…I was jealous of how skilled you were, so I turned you into a rival." His smile was less sad now, and honest, "I wanted to be just like you. I started with nothing…but I finally made a connection. We went on missions as team seven, and I kept chasing you, wanting to be just as strong, just as cool." Naruto smiled happily now, eyes scrunched up, "I'm really glad I met you."

(AN: This is where I change things to help my story along)

Sasuke looked at his one-time teammate, an almost scowl on his face, "Naruto… It's too late. Nothing you can say now can change me!" Now Sasuke really did scowl, "I'm going to kill you and destroy your beloved Konoha!"

Naruto scowled too at that, "You would destroy the village that Itachi protected? That he would destroy his own clan, his own _family_ to protect? If what Tobi said was true then Danzo was the one to give Itachi his orders, and Danzo was the reason there was an Uchiha Massacre, not Konoha!"

Sasuke charged Naruto with a Chidori, the blonde's words still ringing in his head. Naruto countered with a Rasengan in his right hand as two of his clones rushed up to his left side. As the two attacks collide Naruto brought his left hand up into Sasuke's side with a Rasenshuriken, throwing him across the little pond into the wall and knocking him unconscious. Naruto walked over to his fallen friend, Sakura running up behind him, and placed a chakra suppression seal on Sasuke so when he woke he wouldn't try to get away.

After Naruto had finished the seal, Sakura checked Sasuke's injures and began healing him. Once he his wounds were closed, she looked up to Kakashi, "He should live; I've also stabilized him for transport. We'll have to go slow, and I should check him every hour or so, but he can make the journey back without adding to his injuries." She was taking deep breaths to keep from crying, whether in joy or sorrow she wasn't sure, probably both.

Kakashi walked over to Karin, as Naruto finished putting a chakra suppression Seal on her, and lifted her onto his back. Naruto did the same for Sasuke, and they began their slow trek back to where Kiba, Akamaru, Sai, and Lee slept.

Sakura administered the antidote to her sleeping gas and Sai sat up first before looking over to the rest of team seven and their prisoner. He blinked once, "You got him." He said simply to Naruto.

Looking at Sai, Naruto smiled, "Yeah!" Then he looked over his shoulder, and sighed, "I had to seal his chakra though, so he won't be able to do any jutsu, and he's too badly injured to fight back." Then he looked to Sai again, his brow furrowed slightly, "He killed Danzo. Is that going to cause problems when we get back to Konoha, do you think?" he asked his other teammate.

Sai paused before answering, "I'm not sure. Danzo-sama was not well liked by the Godaime and often worked behind or directly against the Sandaime. Root was disbanded by the Sandaime's order before I was acquired, so I know that he would be considered a traitor by the law, but he was the Rokudaime Kooho, temporary as it was."

Yamato looked up, and thought a moment, "True, but the Kage Summit rejected Danzo-san and elected Kakashi as the new Rokudaime Kooho, and that happened before Sasuke killed Danzo-san, so it is possible that most of the trouble can be managed."

Kiba looked at the six members of team 7, shocked and slightly confused, "What do you mean the Kage summit rejected the Rokudamie-sama? And how can they vote a new one in? Wouldn't he be the Nanadaime-sama? Candidate, what do you mean candidate? And why would they do that? And weren't we supposed to kill Sasuke? He's a member of Akatsuki and they attacked Konoha!" He was standing and agitated now, trying to make sense of all the new information.

Kakashi decided to fill the young man in on all the new goings on, "Danzo-san tried to control the other Kages, which is against the rules of the summit, and then he tried to get them to put him in charge, effectively asking them to let him take over the world and when the leader of Akatsuki attacked he ran instead of staying and helping like he should have and all the other Kages actually did."

Lee having listened to everything going on since he began to awaken jumped to his feet now, "How UNYOUTHFUL!" he shouted, upset at the lack of honor their Rokudaime had shown.

Kakashi's visible eye twitched, "Yes, well that is why he was rejected by the Summit, and since he was only a Candidate—his election to Hokage was incomplete, he was not officially the Hokage yet—The Summit was able to reject his position and elect a new Candidate, but again the title is not official yet, and if the Godaime wakes by the time we get back it will mean that there is in fact not a Rokudaime Hokage yet, unless the Godaime decides to agree to the election."

"Oh." Kiba said, looking shocked. "So, what now?"

Yamato stood up and dusted off his uniform, "Now we all head back to Konoha and see what happens." Just as he was about to take the lead in formation, since Kakashi had a prisoner, he heard Naruto sigh.

"I don't want to see what happens, I want to have some say in what happens. Can we think this through a little more, I don't want this to blow up, everything with the Teme has been so complicated, we probably need to seriously plan this to pull it off." He had set Sasuke down, and leaned against a tree. Yamato looked at Kakashi who just set his own prisoner down and leaned against a tree facing Naruto, so Yamato shrugged and turned back to the with a resigned "Fine."

"How YOUTHFUL that you seek to help your friend!" Lee exclaimed, jumping up and pumping his fist, with fire in his eyes. Kiba flinched away form him, still not used to Lee's exuberance up close like this. Kakashi ignored him with ease born of practice. Sakura sighed at his yelling, and Yamato cringed, why Gia's student had to act so much like him, Yamato was never sure.

Yamato squinted at Naruto, "It's unlike you to plan ahead." He statement had an almost questioning tone to it, filled with doubt at this development.

Naruto started at the creepy look on Yamato's face, "Hey, hey I totally plan ahead! Sometimes. That's not the point." He responded defensively, as the awake ninja, and Akumaru too, gave him highly skeptical looks.

Leaning on a tree, Kakashi had his Icha Icah novel out, "Oh, and what is the point?" Not even looking up from the pages of his book as he calmly asked his agitated student.

"The point is, this is Sasuke, right!" Naruto raised his voice, still annoyed. "And after the last 3 years I've spent chasing him, I'm not going to let him get away now! We are team 7, all five of us, and no one, not even the old geezers on the council are going to take that way from us now!" He slammed his fist into the palm of his hand at the end, to highlight his point.

Sakura sighed leaning on her own tree, "Well, there are four issues I can see us not getting around easily. He joined Orochimaru, and Akatsuki, he attacked the Raikage 's brother, and he killed Danzo." She had both hands up, using one to tick off four fingers on the other.

Groaning, Naruto ran his hands through his hair, "He also killed Orochimaru, and Itachi, two notorious missing-nin, which can be counted in his favor for loyalty to Konoho, and Sai said that Danzo counts as a traitor because of Root, right, so that's three traitors to Konoha he has dealt with. It's the Akatsuki and Raikage's brother I don't know if we could deal with." He smacked his forehead against the tree his pacing had lead him in front of.

Kiba was sitting on the snow, leaning his back on Akamaru, and sighed, "I don't know why you want to help the guy, but if you're so set on it, he didn't actually kill the Raikage's brother, so we can argue for leniency, maybe."

Naruto took a deep relieved breath and Kiba's words. "Which just means we only have to worry about the Akatsuki really." A smile began to form, with the thought that this could be easier than he feared.

Lee looked at the smile on his blonde friends face, and the unhappy look on Kiba's. He thought of all the trouble Sasuke had caused over the last nearly four years. "Naruto, it is quite youthful that you worry for your friend, but what he did, it was unyouthful. Surely we cannot forgive his unyouthfulness fully or we will show ourselves to be without our own youth." It was somewhere between a statement and a question, Lee was sure total instant forgiveness was not an option, but yet forgiveness was very youthful in itself, so he was unsure of the course of action at this time.

"I can't just let them kill him, Gejimayu!" Naruto yelled, hands in the air, defensive of his friend's safety imminently, habitually.

"That's not what he's saying Naruto, and he's right!" Sakura immediately berated her teammate, used to his idiotic notions, and disputing them. "Sasuke's crimes can't go unpunished! It will set a bad president, it will make it look like anyone from an important clan can do whatever they please, and as long as they have an important Kekkei Genkai Konoha will forgive it!" She stopped wagging her finger at him and finished her lecture in an annoyed tone.

"But Sakura, you hear those Kumo nin! They want to execute him! We can't let them do that! Not to Sasuke!" Naruto whinnied, wanting to save his friend, knowing she'd agree with him.

Kakashi put his book away, "You're right, and we won't. We can lessen his crimes, and we can do as Kiba said, we can ask for leniency, some, anyway." Kakashi walked away from the tree he had been leaning on, toward the red-haired girl. He hair reminded him of Kushina's. "But he _does_ have to be punished for defecting, for nearly killing you, for joining Akatsuki and for attacking the Raikage's brother." Kakashi looked Naruto in the eye, knowing he needed him to understand, and to concede this point to stop Naruto from fighting all types of punishment. "We can use your points that Orochimaru, Itachi, and Danzo were all traitors, even if Itachi was a sanctioned one, and Danzo was a disgraced Hokage Candidate. We can also get the charges from Kumo reduced because he didn't kill the Raikage's brother, but that will only work if he gets some from of punishment. No punishment and Kumo will likely demand his execution or declare war." Kakshi looked down at the girl, ready to move on soon, to get home.

Naruto threw his hands up. Startled. "But we're already at War! Akatsuki declared was on all of the Elemental Nations!"

Yamato finally decided he should contribute to controlling Naruto's action, after all, Kakashi-sempia had, and Yamato was a captain of Team 7 as well. "Exactly! And if we do this right then we won't have to fight a two front war, Kumo will be with us against Akatsuki instead of against us. So it's best if we get this settled as quickly as possible, with the least amount of arguments."

Kakashi nodded at Yamato's words, bending down to pick up the girl prisoner. "As the new Hokage Candidate, I can deal with this when we get back to Konoha, if Tsunade-sama hasn't woken yet, if she has, we need to talk to her. I have some thoughts, but as the Hokage-Koho, I cannot share them with you. We'll head back to Konoha now, and deal with what we find there.' His mind made up, he nodded at Tenzo to lead the group home.

Naruto sighed and picked up a still unconscious Sasuke, and moved to follow Tenzo, Sakura fell in step behind him, but off to his right, with Lee keeping up with her on his left. Kakashi moved to follow a bit behind and between the two, and Kiba and Akamaru took up similar position to Sakaura and Lee behind Kakashi. Sai, who had been silent for some time now, still thinking on Naruto's coment about 5 members of Team seven, took up the rear. The group started the long trek home.


	2. Omake 1: Facts of the World

Sorry I was a bit late, work and life have been very busy this month, but by may I should have that under control. Also, the Doc Manager hates the Microsoft .docx files of the 2010 update, which is whatlike 95% of my stories are right now, and I have to change it before I can upload them. I's very annoying.

Please Vote in the POLL any story not voted for will **ONLY** APPEAR ON **AO3**

AN: the Starting Facts, this is a long Authors Note, but you kind of need to know this stuff for world-building info. You can skip it, but it might make the story more confusing to read.

 _ **DISCLAIMER**_ : I do not own Naruto. Kishimoto Masashi is the mangaka of Naruto, and thus I would assume the owner of Naruto. There are publishers and TV show people who probably own Naruto too. I mean no Copyright Infringement by borrowing the characters, places, events plotline and world of Naruto. I make no money off of my writings based on the Copyrighted Naruto world, nor do I condone or am aware of anyone making money off of my fanfictions. Everything found in this story is based off of the Copyrighted Naruto world with only my false interpretation on actual Copyrighted and non-Original Naruto based events.

Anything I refer to as "cannon" is a fact (usually stated, but possibly assumed) of Kishimoto Masashi's Copyrighted Original Naruto world, and is thus owned in its entirety by Kishimoto Masashi. Anything that is "fannon" is something some fan (not necessarily me) came up with somewhere (not necessarily here) that is a kind of twist on Kishimoto Masashi's Copyrighted Original Naruto world, and thus should never be assumed as true unless proven so in cannon (such as Yondaime actually proving to be Naruto's father).

"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for 'fair use' for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."

I own nothing of Naruto, the only Naruto related things I have are screen shots and fanart pictures, which I found on the internet. All I am is a college student who lives with her parents who wants to avoid homework, and this is how I do it.

 **Disclaimer** : I make no claim to the Idea or Plotline of this fanfiction. It came from the Challenge titled The Wrath of Team 7 at **fanfiction topic/51526/10707324/1/** and issued by EDelta88. I do not actually believe any of this story can truly be considered solely mine, as much of what I write is inspired by or in spite of some other author writing something that lead me to think "or if you changed/added this or that, then" If you see something you think you created or inspired in some way, PM me, I'll check and either tell you "no" and why I believe that, or put you in the CWCD (Credit Where Credit is Do) Section that will be in a AN and posted in each relevant Chapter.

This is going to be the only formal Disclaimer in my story, the rest will involve heavy amounts of sarcasm, because honestly, I believe the need for a Disclaimer is made moot by the fact that these stories are being posted on , and not . But it's all legal stuff, and I don't want to get in trouble, so here it is.

There will be little Author's Notes every few chapters, because this is not Cannon, and that means I can change things, so anything I've changed that you need to know about I will tell you in an Author's Notes chapter either before or after the related story chapter comes up.

I wrote the order of Author's Notes separate form the Story, The Author's Notes are something like Omakes/OVA's, or even a Data Book, and each note is like a page or two from that book, it will have relevant information to the chapter either following it or before it, but you don't have to read them, or all of them. It is entirely possible to ignore the ANs and just read the story, but it will make the story seem more confusing. Just so you know.

Here is "ISC DATA BOOK Page 1" where I will tell you a few little things I have changed that you need to know about to start the story.

1) I have changed some ages. What you need to know now:

I'm making Naruto a different age then the rest of the Rookie nine, because the Japanese school year starts in April, and their age cut off is on April 1 and the year ends on February 28th ( or 31st here). Naruto failed his Academy exit exam THREE times before the forbidden scroll thing, so unless they let just anyone take it at any time; he had to be older than the rest of his class.

So, in this story, Naruto entered the Academy with Team 9: Neji, Tenten and Lee, because they give the Academy Exit Exam at the end of February and the end of October. So Naruto took it with Team 9 in February like the rest of his class, failed it, got put in the "try again" class they hold for all the Teams that don't pass the exit exam or their Jounin Survival test, and then failed the Test held for that class in October (when he turns 13), and then he got put in the class a year behind (Hello team 7) him to take it a third time, where he failed it again and the fiasco known as Mizuki and the Forbidden Scroll happened, and he passed, mostly on a technicality and the kindness of a teacher (which should probably not be allowed, but it got him out of the academy, so who'll complain?). And thus, he is one, (and not two like I could make it) year older than the rest of the rookie 9. Also, because the age cut off is on April 1, Sakura is actually a year younger than Sasuke, because she turns 6 just before the Academy starts in March, while Sasuke turned 6 July of the calendar year before.

Also, according to a Data book, Sai is 17 when Shippuoden starts, which is when everyone else is 15-16, so that makes him a year older than Naruto, two older than Sasuke, and three older than Sakura.

So, a little Calendar thing that will help show what I mean:

Using the Year the Kyuubi attacked as a base, and remembering that they have to turn 6 years old before April 1 to start the Academy,

One Year before Kyuubi attacks: Sai, November 25

The Year Kyuubi attacks: Neji, July 3; Naruto, October 10; Lee November 27

The year after Kyuubi attacks: TenTen, March 9; Choji, May 1; Sasuke, July 23

Two Years after Kyuubi attacks: Shino, January 23; Sakura, March 28

2) Jiraiya taught Naruto Seal Techniques or Fuuinjutsu. And the training time after that is also different.

Kyuubi attacks: Naruto 0, Rookie 9 -1.  
Rookie 9 Graduate 12, Naruto 13

Shippouden: Rookie 9 16, Naruto 17. (Begins learning Seals)  
Naruto Seal Training with Jiraiya and Sage training with Toads: Naruto is 19  
Naruto does not Master Seals with Jiraiya, but Naruto is _good_ at it, he's not Perfect, but he's _good_.

Also: I changed the training ages and such after Shippouden.  
The story starts when Naruto is born (When the Rookie 9 are -1) and the R9 grad at 12 (Naruto is 13), then there is a few months of D-ranks and a few C-Ranks, and then Chuunnin Exams. Shippouden begins when R9 are 15, then a few months of Akatsuki, then The Fourth Great Shinobi War begins.

3) I changed the Calendar. Why? Because trying to figure out leap years and things is annoying, and I don't want to do it. So now the Naru-verse of my fanfiction has a new calendar, it goes something like this: Jan: 30, Feb: 31, March: 30, April: 31, May: 30, June: 31, July: 30, Aug: 31, Sept: 30, Oct: 31, Nov: 30, Dec: 31. That gives my year 366 days, instead of 365 and 1/4 days, and it kills annoying things like leap years and not properly alternating patterns! (I'm OCPD. I like things that are properly organized.) Otherwise the calendar isn't all that different, and YOU don't have to worry about it really, it's mostly for me, but I thought I'd mention it in case you decide to care.

I don't know what Year it is in cannon (like it's 2010 when I'm first writing this) I think it's something like 207 or something, but I don't know if that is when Naruto is born or when he is 12, so I'm just going to make the year 210 when Naruto is born and Kyuubi attacks, but its kinda like the altered calendar, it's mostly a note for me, to make things easier, if you know the cannon year and what age a character is that matches it (like it's 207 when Team 7 is 12) and would like to tell me, that would be helpful, but not really necessary.

4) Danzo does not get counted as a Hokage, he was only a **Candidate** Hokage, which means it wasn't final, and since the Kage Summit rejected him, and there is loads of paperwork that says he went against direct orders of previous Hokages (ROOT _is_ illegal, you know) he doesn't get the Rokudaime title, or his face on the Mountain (which is good, because who would want to see that every day?)

Also, Kakashi is only a **Candidate** Hokage elected by the Kage Summit, so if *coughcough _when_ coughcough* Tsunade wakes he may not get the title of Hokage either.


	3. Chapter 2: Team 7

AN: Hey! It's still September! So it counts! I literally just finished typing this, so it might suck, but I've been working on it for more than a year, and I am just done.

Edit: 1/21/19 Mostly grammar, and mild spelling stuff. repeat words and missing words fixed. There's probably more to fix, this was just the edits form my reminder read though.

 **PLEASE ANSWER TO POLL ANYTHING NOT VOTED FOR WILL BE REMOVED FROM MY PROFILE IN 2018!** Stories with only 1 vote are still only a 'maybe here' posting, not a guarantee posting.

Chapter 2: The Trip Home

The trip back wasn't as uneventful as everyone would have preferred. Karin woken a few hours into the run, ans started screeching, immediately. "You! You stupid Konoha-nin won't take my Sasuke-kun, and as soon as I get my chakra back you'll be sorry! You have no right to even be near Sasuke-kun, you rotten Tree-huggers!" The group had stopped running when she had started trying to get out of her bindings on Kakashi's back, and Naruto took the chance to pass Sasuke over to Lee and then hop back a few branches to look the redhead in the eyes. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, Sasuke's best friend and the future Hokage! And we're bringing Sasuke home.! He's a member of Team 7 and I don't care how much of a bastard he's been, he's still _our_ bastard!" Karin Stared, wide eyed at the blonde _Uzumaki from Konoha._ And then she went still and shut up. Once Naruto had gotten Sasuke back from Lee and the group continued on their trek back to Konoha, she stared silently at the back of the blonde's head, and occasionally glanced around the group, but she made no move to escape.

Sasuke woke a few hours later. The first thing he noticed was the hair in his face. And he knew immediately who he was with. He tried to mold Chakra and shift his arms to throw Naruto off his stride, and hopefully hurt the blonde enough to get himself lose. But his Chakra wasn't there, and the sudden movement of his head and arms left him feeling nauseous. And of course his movement had drawn attention to his consciousness.

Once again the group stopped. "Hey Bastard, glad you're awake, because we have a long trip home and it was getting really boring being all silent." Naruto happily greeted his friend "Don't bother trying to use your chakra, I sealed it away for now, same with the girl you were with." Naruto's cheer dropped a bit, when he told his old teammate about the state he was in. Best to let the bastard know that his escape attempts were pointless early. It would save them all some headache. Karin's head snapped up from looking at Sasuke at Naruto's explanation, but she still remained silent.

Sasuke glared. He wasn't sure why his head felt light and his vision swam, but from the sharp smile on Sakura's face whenever he caught a still glimpse of her, it was likely something she did. She had that smile she got right before she hit Naruto for something stupid on her face. Sasuke had never had the smile directed at him before, and if he could think straight he likely would have said something scathing to her. But it was everything he could do to just grunt at the people he was with.

"It's too bad he woke, the rest of the trip will likely be uncomfortable now, nausea is a side affect of the balance altering drug I gave him." Sakura said, a small, please smile on her lips, looking more toward Sasuke than at anyone in the retrieval team.

Kakashi sighed, "Well, it can't be helped. Tenzo slow the pace a little, but let's head back out." Kakashi looked back at the young lady on his back. He hadn't missed the way she had been reacting to Naruto. And he did recognize that shade of red. He wasn't sure if it was true, but if she was an Uzumaki, she might turn out to be as much of a paperwork nightmare as Sasuke.

Sasuke had resigned himself to being carried on Naruto's back, for at least as long as the drugs in his system lasted. Karin remained silent near the back of the group, but Naruto used the time to talk to him. His captive audience of a best friend. Of course, Sasuke considered it a rant, and he tried to tune out as much as he could, but since his ear was practically right next to Naruto's mouth, he wasn't successful. Worse still, his only options were to look at Sakura, or to look at Lee. Since he didn't know how Sakura's crush on him had evolved while he was gone, and he wasn't comfortable with receiving her 'I'm about to hit you' smile, he figured it would be best to look at Lee.

Naruto figured that since the Bastard couldn't go anywhere, having no weapons, no chakra, and no balance or body control, although he probably hadn't noticed that since he hadn't needed to walk yet, he'd spend the time talking to him, and explaining what it meant to be Team 7. Specifically that once you were Team 7, you can never stop being Team 7. Since the Bastard obviously hadn't been paying attention while they were in Konoha, Naruto figured he'd have to repeat it several times. But it would take them tree or four day to get home, and really, maybe if he said it often enough this time the Bastard would get it.

Kiba was amazed. He hadn't realized Naruto could talk so much, sure they'd been friends in the Academy, but not that close, and Kiba was so glad he was neither on Team 7 or Naruto's best friend, because Kiba could swear that's all Naruto talked about all the way home. He only stopped when they took shifts sleeping, or when he ate. It was a very tedious few days. Sakura occasionally chimed in on Naruto's lecture, since Naruto, while passionate, wasn't as eloquent as a future Hokage really should be, but he didn't seem to mind her little interruptions. The whole way home Kiba was positive Naruto was trying to guilt Sasuke into changing. It wasn't even aimed at him and Kiba felt guilty.

But Naruto was passionate. And determined. He explained quite clearly to Sasuke, again, that "We are Team 7, bastard, that means we take care of each other, and we stick together. FOREVER. And I know what happened to your family sucked, it really, really did, but hey, at least you got to meet them. At least you knew who they were, know they loved you. I didn't get that much until Pain attacked Konoha and I almost died. I still don't even know my mom's _name_. All I know for sure is she was an Uzumaki, because dad sure wasn't! And hey, at least the villagers _like_ you and stuff. They hate me, they've been calling me names and saying I should die since before I can remember." Naruto's voice was loud, and filled with emotion, although he didn't gesticulate, since he was holding Sasuke, but his shoulders moved more often when he talked, and it only made Sasuke even more dizzy because the movement wasn't in rhythm with their running. Through Naruto's many speeches, Kakashi continued to keep track of Karin who stared holes into the back of Naruto's head, not that the blonde noticed, focused as he was on Sasuke.

On the second day Lee thought Naruto's youthful passion was so inspiring he offered to scout ahead, so Sai had moved to be on Naruto's other side in the formation. That put Kiba and Akamaru at the back of the group, except when Lee came back from scouting and ran behind them. This left Sai smiling his creepy-empty-not-smile right at Sasuke who was still purposely turned away from Sakura. Sasuke hated Sai and tried to glare at his replacement, but since Sakura kept him drugged up he didn't often have the focus to manage it as strongly as he wanted. Worse still it only made Sai smile more.

When Lee showed back up after his forward scouting, reporting no other shinobi nearby, he realized he had lost his spot beside Sakura. He then lamented the lose of such beauty and was told to go to the back, this was a team bonding experience, which received an aggravated groan from Yamato, and was blatantly ignored by Kakashi. Kiba and Akamaru spent the whole second day staring at the wreck that was Team Seven "Bonding." Kiba thought he'd never be upset at Shino's silence on missions again. Yamato spent the whole trip at the front of the group trying very hard to be deaf, not that it worked because as creepy as Naruto thought he was, he was still Team 7 too, and often got talked to and about in Naruto's long stings of 'Team 7 this' and 'Team 7 that.'

When they set up camp for the night Yamato took the time to tell Kakashi that he thought Lee scouted ahead just to get out of range of Naruto's voice. Kakashi hummed at his comment but didn't otherwise react. He was pretty sure Tenzo was wrong of course, and that Lee honestly thought Naruto's passion about Team 7 was an amazing show of his Flames of Youth, but Tenzo hadn't spent as much time around Gai and Lee yet, and Kakashi thought it would be hilarious to watch the look on his face when Lee sang praises of Naruto's passion when they got home and so didn't dissuade him of his theory. Sasuke had stopped trying to interrupt or contradict Naruto as much that day, and while that might be Sakura giving him a larger dose of the drug she had their prisoners on, Kakashi liked to think to himself that maybe Team 7, and Sasuke, weren't as hopeless as he feared.

That night a few of the Root ANBU showed up near the camp during Lee's shift, and Sai slipped out of camp, and confirmed that Danzo-sama was dead and Kakashi had been elected Hokage-Candadate by the Kage Summit. He told them that Root would likely have to come clean with the Hokage now that they had no leader, because Danzo had never trusted anyone to replace him, and had somehow assumed he would never die. The Root ANBU said they would consider it and rushed back to Konoha to tell the rest of Root the news.

By the end of the trip Naruto had explained to Sasuke, many times, that they were Team 7, and he didn't just get to get out of that because he was having a bad day. If anyone had a good reason to burn Konoha to the ground it was Naruto, and he wasn't doing it. And he didn't plan on doing it, he was going to become Hokage and make Konoha a better place, a place where things like what happened to Naruto, and Sasuke, and Sai, because that was just horrible, he really needed help, and he was Team 7 now, so he was going to get it! Would never happen again. And really, wouldn't that be a better revenge against those old geezers on the council, live and prosper and change it so that they had to live as the useless old bags they actually were, and he could honor Itachi, too, by protecting the village Itachi had obviously loved so much. Sakura's comment of the best revenge being living well sailed right over Naruto's head, and was unacknowledged by Sasuke, although certainly not unheard, and Sai, had stopped smiling at Sasuke long enough to look at her and think about it a moment before nodding and returning to what he thought was a friendly welcoming of the missing teammate, but was coming off more as a threatening intimidation.

As much as Sasuke never wanted to go back to Konoha for any reason but it's destruction, he was almost glad when he was the village gates. At least now Naruto might shut up. Karin wasn't sure how to feel about being captured, or what would happen to her, but at least she was with Sasuke, and Suigetsu and Juugo weren't around to be annoying either. While she didn't think any Uzumaki could be blond, the boy certainly had the personality to be one, if her mother's stories were anything to go by. And he knew seals. More then she did, because she had tried to mess with the chakra seal on her skin and only ginen herself aches and pains.


	4. Credit Where Credit is Due

**Disclaimer** : Hahahaha, see the first Credit

 **Notes** : So, this was due a week ago, but my internet was down and the life was stressful, and I am SERIOUS about he Poll going down. When I get there.

 **Chapter Beta** : None, but this thing has been written for years. I may need to update it as things go on, and I might add story id's or user id's.

Credit Where Credit is Due: (CWCD)

 **Kishimoto Masashi** -The inventor, creator, and artist of _Naruto_. If it weren't for this wonderful mangaka there would be no Naruto world in which I could play. Let's all give a round of applause to the Master here.

 **EDelta88** \- The mastermind that came up with this challenge to which I am writing. If there hadn't been a challenge, there would probably not be this story.

 **OneArcane** \- The author who took this challenge up first. I found his story in a search, and thought the idea was interesting, and liked a few things about it, and disliked a few, causing me to think "If it had been me writing" and then I saw the "this was a challenge found here" at the bottom, and now we are here. The Time-travel "jutsu" is based off of his fic directly, since the challenge rules actually had something different, but I agree with him, so I'm using a similar concept here.

 **Shadewolf7** \- The wonderful author of _The Price of the Future_. This is where my "Chakra doubling from time travel" idea was plainly copied form. And because of Shade, I started working on Bijuu stuff, and so you can blame my Bijuu strange occurrences here.

 **daniel-gudman** \- Who wrote _Accounting No Jutsu_ , with the "Naruto is a Finance Fiend" idea (which I had only ever vaguely heard of before) and gave me the idea to have Naruto be good with a budget. Not Accounting No Jutsu good, but still, better than he would have been before this.

 **Angel of Snapdragons** -who wrote _A Month as Naruto Uzumaki_ in which the amazing eloquence that is the Rage of a Hokage is shown. It spawned ideas. :-D

 **Stephfunky** \- who wrote _Grinning_ where there is a definition—a very apt one at that—of Grins and Smiles. Very insightful, and I'm using that definition as a rule/headcanon here, even if I never say it.

 **Dayadhvam** \- the author of What Remains Unmentioned which is a very insightful look at Kakashi and Gai, as well as the overall dynamics of Team 7. This is assumed "fanon cannon" for this story, in the "old time" before the world all goes to hell and time travel must be used.

Other people on the challenge forum, who have given me ideas to use, or caused ideas because of something they said.

Please note that I don't actually say exactly what I am using from them, mostly to make you go and read their stories to understand what I'm talking about.


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